High availability is increasingly one of the top expressed needs in enterprise environments. It is estimated that even a few seconds of downtime for a relatively large enterprise environment often leads to dramatic losses in revenue. Interruptions in the power delivery to a computing system are some of the causes of system failures. These interruptions are typically the result of power failures, noisiness in the power supply, or human or environmental error.
To avoid the problems associated with power delivery interruptions, computing systems typically include support for redundant power supplies. The redundant power supplies are often connected to multiple power sources and include circuitry for substantially ensuring that power is continuously delivered to the computing systems in the event that one or more of the power supplies fails. The use of redundant power supplies, however, is relatively expensive and inefficient. In addition, redundant power supplies often require relatively large amounts of space as well as additional cooling devices.
Thus, there is a continuing need to provide a power system having redundant power supplies that do not suffer from the drawbacks associated with conventional power systems.